VAPT Services in Hyderabad · Pharma & IT

Hyderabad's cybersecurity demand splits cleanly along two axes and most generic 'VAPT vendors' miss the seam entirely. HITEC City, Gachibowli and Madhapur host the SaaS, fintech and IT-services majors. Genome Valley (Shameerpet, off the ORR exit to Karimnagar) and the broader Shamirpet–Patancheru pharma corridor host the R&D campuses and CROs that run clinical-trial data, GMP-validated lab systems and lab-instrument integrations. The same engagement template breaks against both: pharma scoping looks like a regulated-data-flow audit, SaaS scoping looks like a multi-tenant authz audit. Macksofy maintains two distinct playbooks and the senior consultant chooses which to pull off the shelf at kickoff.

For pharma and CRO clients in Genome Valley and the Patancheru belt, we focus on regulated-data flows end-to-end: clinical-trial portals (eCRF, EDC), eTMF systems, lab-instrument integrations (Empower, LabSolutions, OpenLAB CDS), the LIMS and the segregation between R&D networks and corporate IT. Findings are mapped to 21 CFR Part 11 (electronic-records and electronic-signature controls), GxP data-integrity ALCOA+ principles, EU GMP Annex 11 (computerised systems) and the WHO TRS 1019 Annex 4 guidance on data integrity. The same VAPT closes the next FDA Pre-Approval Inspection or EMA mock-audit cycle, which the QA director cares about far more than the IT director.

Lab-instrument testing is a Hyderabad specialty. Most pharma engagements include a walk-through of at least one QC lab — HPLC, GC, dissolution-tester and balance integrations into the LIMS or CDS. Common findings: shared local-admin credentials on the analytical workstation, USB-mass-storage policy gaps that allow raw-data exfiltration, audit-trail-disable paths on the chromatography software, and time-synchronisation drift between the instrument workstation and the LIMS server that breaks ALCOA+ contemporaneity. These do not appear in a Burp Suite report. We run them as guided walk-throughs with a QA witness and document the evidence in 21 CFR Part 11 §11.10(e) terms.

For HITEC City and Gachibowli SaaS and IT-services clients in Cyber Towers, Mindspace, Raheja Mindspace, Hitech City Phase 2 and the Q City / Wave Rock belt, scopes look more like the Bengaluru pattern — multi-tenant SaaS authz, customer-data isolation, vendor-API trust chains — but with a strong overlay of US-healthcare and US-BFSI client-imposed control catalogues passed down from US/EU parents. Reports map to SOC 2 Type II CC controls, ISO 27001:2022 Annex A and (where US healthcare data is in scope) HIPAA Security Rule §164.308–312 administrative, physical and technical safeguards.

Senior consultants fly from Mumbai BKC via the BOM-HYD morning flight; for Hyderabad-resident lead support we draw from the South India regional hub in HITEC City itself, which keeps onsite cadence inside two hours for any Madhapur, Gachibowli, Banjara Hills, Kondapur or Genome Valley location. Most pharma VAPTs run 4-5 weeks with at least two onsite plant or R&D-site visits; SaaS scopes complete in 3-4 weeks; full-suite pharma engagements that touch corporate IT plus R&D plus QC lab integrations stretch to 6-8 weeks. We re-test critical findings inside the remediation window at no extra cost.

Hyderabad pharma procurement is unusual: the IT head proposes the SoW, the QA director approves it (because 21 CFR Part 11 and ALCOA+ live in QA's jurisdiction), and the head of plant operations signs off if any GMP-validated system is in scope. We size proposals around that triangle and write the executive summary in QA-readable language — not 'CVSS 7.4 SSRF in eTMF' but 'electronic-record integrity exposure on the eTMF audit-trail path; FDA inspection risk Category-1; remediation closes 21 CFR Part 11 §11.10(e)'. Every finding is dated against the next FDA / EMA / DCGI inspection on the QA calendar so the team knows which gaps must close before which inspection.

For HITEC City SaaS and IT-services clients, procurement closes through the CTO and AppSec lead, sometimes with a US-headquartered parent's CISO copied for the larger GCCs. We sync the report to the next enterprise-procurement cycle and ship a sanitised vendor pack alongside the technical findings. Where the client also operates a parallel pharma-data scope (a CRO running a SaaS clinical-trial-management platform, for example), we shift methodology between SaaS-style and pharma-style scoping in the same engagement so the QA and AppSec functions get one report rather than two contradictory ones.

Genome Valley clients almost universally now run a parallel DPDP Act readiness track on clinical-trial-participant data. We layer DPDP RoPA mapping and consent-flow testing into the pharma VAPT — informed-consent capture, withdrawal-of-consent propagation back through the eTMF, and the cross-border-transfer evidence that DPDP §16 now requires for sponsor-data flows back to the US or EU CRO parent.